49 hours later

Lucky for me, you're in the minority

 

The 5 years before we bought out house in 2005, the previous owners on average burned 4000 gallons of propane at a contract rate of $4.25/gallon per year. While until recently, I continued to use propane for hot water, the vast majority of the usage was space heating (hot water usage was low enough that I did it with grill tanks after my brawl with the propane company). Delivered propane is now in the $3 range here, so we are looking at $12K for space heating a year. In contrast, I loaded 8 cord of scrounged wood into the single stove in the middle of the house, approximately 300 loads over 210 days with an average burn time of 17 hours over the season. The BK makes it possible to do without getting so pizzed off with the process that I am willing to pay the man (got real close with previous 2 cu ft cat stove). This means 300 full loads no matter the temperature and then setting the tstat to the output I need for the conditions. To me, that is the magic of the BK.

For those of you doing the math and wondering how 8 cord replaces 4000 gallons of propane, I took the savings from burning wood and have heavily invested in the shell of the house including a rebuild of the external wall systems. Before the install of the BK, new windows and new sheathing/felt/foam/tyvek/windows/siding, I had to use supplemental heat to keep up.

 

S&W, 8 cord isn't a stretch of the imagination to me, even with a King. I'm on cord 6 but luckily, now on pretty consistent 24 hr. burns. Gotta ask-
I remember the pics. you took of the interior of your King when you first got it. It was fairly crapped up with creo, so.. how's it look now? Mine does the same thing, and I'm pretty sure other's have the same issues. Are you seeing those same conditions? Thanks, JB.

 

It's the nature of the beast, John. Mine was cold yesterday, so I brushed the pipe and checked things out. I still have a good amount of buildup in the stove, but less than the last couple of years. I burned HOT for most of the winter, so that's not a surprise. I know SW burns hot most of the time, so I'm interested, too.

I think it's funny when non-BK burners say to burn it out with a hot fire. It just doesn't work that way.

 

I'm at the 1/2 load, low , 24 hr long smolder burns now.
near 50° days & around 30° at night.
Real dry wood helping but dirty glass & some creo inside in the corners.
Due a good cleaning this year, will quit burn season at end of the month or so.
Take apart & clean real good then. Cat showing signs of needing cleaned too.

Funny I have tomatoes in the Green house & having a fire to keep the house warm LOL

 

YOUZA!! 8 Cords? WOW! I can't even image burning that much wood. I have 8.25 cords stacked in my yard right now, that will be good for 4 or 5 years of 24x7 heat. Of course I'm not quite in Fairbanks Alaska, but yikes!

 

It was really bad when I got it. I'm not surprised the previous owners said it didn't put out any heat. Wish I could find another deal like that If you guys are talking typical BK glass when burning low, I get the same thing even with 3 year plus dry stuff. As soon as I stop burning in a few weeks, I need to tear it down for cleaning and a little work on the bypass. I'm pretty sure the gasket needs to be replaced.

 

Thanks S&W but I'm curious about the interior of the stove. My back corners and inside the interior shields accumulate a lot of build up, just curious if you get that also, as hard as you run the stove. I know Jeff and I see similar build-ups-(mine are worse), wondering if you're able to burn it cleaner, that's all. Thanks, JB.

 

This is what it looks like this morning after 5 seasons and about 40 cord through it since its one and only cleaning when I bought it used in 09. It is definitely ready for a good overhaul/paint job this off season.

I see a little gunk in the corners that I usually don't see...pretty sure it is from my wife finding the Oak I had set aside in the garage to give another year while I was gone this week.

 

Here is the glass shot...a little hard to make out the gunk because of the light through the windows but you get the idea

 

That's way cleaner than my stove. I want to see how much junk you dig out from behind those shields.

 

Much cleaner than mine also. Doesn't even look like much buildup behind the shields. Impressive.

 

Where do you guys think the build up is coming from? One thing I do that may help is letting the house cool off a bit during shoulder season when I know I will be burning low and long. Then, bring the house back up at the beginning of the cycle with an hour or so solid burn before going low.

 

I think it's just the smoke swirling around in the relatively cool firebox. At a low setting and with the blowers off, I can easily have 600° over the cat, and still hold my hand on the side shields.

I'm not in control of the stove much of the time, so I'm not exactly sure what she does.

I think it's funny that I have more creosote buildup in the stove than the chimney.

 

That's one of the problems with shoulder burns.
Not hot enough fires to burn off the creo.
Another reason a BK is not the stove for southern locations
where mild winters are " the norm "

I'm still burning in the low smolder mode.
Should be able to shut down soon for the season.
Definitely gonna check/inspect/clean it this summer.
I burn pretty hot normally, but this year was a relatively mild burn season.

 

I know what my wife does..."throws a log on the fire" when she gets cold. Drives me crazy. First thing I do when I get home after being gone for a few days is rake everything front center and open up the tstat. Repeat as necessary until the bed is down where it should be after a burn cycle and then do a hot one.

 

Why does the White Walker look like Eddie from Iron Maiden?

* sorry for the "deep thought of today" drift *